Muhammad Facebook page removed

May 22, 2010 - 2:55PM


A Facebook page considered offensive to Islam that led to a Pakistani ban on the site has been removed, possibly by its creator.

Facebook said on Friday it had not taken any action on the page, which had attracted more than 100,000 users and encouraged users to post images of the prophet Muhammad, purportedly in support of freedom of speech.

Most Muslims regard any depiction of the prophet, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.

Najibullah Malik, the secretary at Pakistan's information technology ministry, said earlier on Friday the government had no option but to shut down Facebook on Wednesday after a court order to do so.

"We know some people are suffering because of this blockade but we have to obey the court order in letter and spirit," Malik said.

Pakistan said it would consider restoring Facebook and other sites with related content only if they took down pages considered offensive to Islam.

There was no immediate word on whether the government was lifting the ban.

The Facebook page, called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!," had declared Thursday as the day to draw Muhammad, so it was possible the creator took it down Friday because the page had served its purpose.

The page encouraged users to post images of the prophet in protest against threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of the American TV series South Park for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris, whose satirical cartoon calling for an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" inspired the Facebook page, said in a post on her website that she meant her work only to be a commentary on the South Park controversy.

"I made a cartoon about the television show South Park being censored," she wrote. "I never started a Facebook page. I apologise to people of Muslim faith and ask that this 'day' be called off."

Other sites have also been affected in the country as officials scramble to block content related to the Facebook page. Wikipedia's English-language site and the Flickr photo-sharing site were also sporadically unavailable on Friday.

It was not the first time depictions of the prophet have angered Muslims. In 2005, cartoons of Muhammad
appeared in a Danish newspaper, sparking protests and riots from Muslims around the world, including in Pakistan, where the protests turned violent.

Several rallies have been held against Facebook in recent days.

Others - mostly members of the more secular, educated elite - accused the government of blocking freedom of expression and hurting small businesses that use Facebook for marketing. Many questioned need for the entire Facebook and YouTube sites to be blocked, instead of individual pages.

AFP

Muhammered off his facebook, Again?

Pakistan said it would consider restoring Facebook and other sites with related content only if they took down pages considered offensive to Islam.

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These nutbags cannot be serious. They follow a man who was pedophillic in nature and then
cry foul when people make fun of him. I say we all make cartoons of mohammed and make
facebook pages.

Hahahahahahahah suck on that western scum!

Praise to Allah.

I don't think you're quite getting the but of the joke... of which is obviously Muslims!

Too much inbreeding will do that I guess.


Tell me, what does goat being cooked over a pile of burning camel shit smell like?

goatelshit ?

STFU melinda ya daft kunt. ur a dirty portuguese aint ya? u r no one to talk about immigrants dickwad.

I wasn't talking about Immigrants, I was referring to filthy backward dopey regressive Muslims spit roasting goat over a pile of camel shit.

Honestly, how do they tell each other apart in school photos?

No wonder Islam is catching on among the Indigenous .... doesn't take a genius to figure out why.

Ps, my grandmother was Portuguese....this means i'm 1/4 ...


.... Thing is, my grandmother always referred to herself as being Australian, was happy to assimilate, .... where as when you ask Muslims of middle eastern appearance what their nationality is, even if their parents were born here in Australia, they will tell you they are Turkish, Lebanese etc.... The Christian Lebanese are quite Australianised, it's the Muslim faith itself which appears to interfere with their capacity/want to identify themselves as being one of us, Australian!

And no, I'm not going to STFU because some smelly old ring-worm in a potato sack tells me to.


Look, I have decided, I am now officially pro-Jihab, no wonder they cover their woman in those sacks, given they aren't allowed to shave.

I went to school with a girl who was sent back to Lebanon at age 13, and returned pregnant with her 40 something year old husband.

Her mother wouldn't let her use deodorant, she insisted she use lemon under her arm pits, this and she wasn't allowed to shave.


Cheerio, now I really must get back to my book.